6 replies to this topic

[Lucydog]

Our upstairs is heavily carpeted and my husband has already ripped out the carpet from the bathroom. He wants to do the same on the landing/stairs, but Im not sure what we should put in its place.

My husband wants to put Lino type flooring down but with small children and visiting elderly parents Im worried it might be slippy and dangerous for them. However we do need something hard wearing as we have dogs as well so I wonder if anyone has any suggestions.

thanks
L

[Kwag_Myers]

Reminds me of this thread.

Have you considered berber?

[cate]

There is a flooring that looks like wood, but is synthtic. called Kardean, It is extremely hardwearing, not slippery at all. Looks really good, and very hardwearing. my Daughter has it in her old victorian house, She also had a large dog, it did not scratch was easy to clean, I so wish I had it put in my house, it has worn so much better than my laminated floors, It was more expensive, but so worth it, and with children about will take all there toys being played on it, and also is not cold, If you ring them up they will send you a sample. I cannot remember the address, but will look for it if you would like me to, Many of our local floors specialist, have samples and did recomment it.
Cate

[gsp23]

I have flooring like Pergo upstairs that is like cate said and its nice for rolling on and virtually indistructable. Everything comes right up from the floor and normal things dont bother it, tire smudges not a problem. My nephew has even skateboarded in my house without issue and the floor is still looking like new many years later. If its a high traffic area I would definatly recommend that type of flooring.

That being said I have berber in my basement. There are a lot of colors and styles of berber carpeting available now (not like even 10 yrs ago) and it looks like and rolls pretty well. I have thicker padding because of the cold concrete floor but its not squishy by any means and you would need minimal padding on an upper level. The stain guarding on my berber far surpasses that of my other carpets in the house, not sure if its just because of the weave or what but I have been able to take out cherry kool-aid, mud from dogs feet, grape juice, dog puke, wine, you name it from that carpet and there are no stains or even anything resembling stains on that carpet.

Hope this helps.

[Lucydog]

Thanks for the replies. My main worry is that my Mum visits quite often and had a knee replacement a few years ago. She is fine most of the time but tends to find a lot of flooring slippy and Id hate for her to come flying down the stairs!

[gsp23]

I was also concerned with that as well when I got the flooring in my house. My grandmother has also had knee replacement and my brother-in-law has very bad knees. I thought I would end up wanting to put that gritty textured stuff on the steps (kinda like a big sticker but textured like sand paper) because of it being slippery, however, I never needed to do that. My grandmother has been over without any problems climbing the stairs as my brother in-law also has and neither have had trouble even when its raining. I made the decision to go with those types of steps so my dog didnt ruin carpeting if she came in that door and had muddy paws. I thought if the steps turned out to be a problem then there is always the option of putting that stuff on the steps that I mentioned, but hasnt been a problem for anyone here anyways.

[cate]

Hi Lucy Dog. I have had tw3o replacement hips, and now knees are going, but have not found the floors a problem, and my daughter uses her crutches and is fine on her floors, always a little more wary on muy laminated floors. Her Germans Shephered never skidded on her floors either, so they held up well. Good luck with your choices, there are planety around now days.
did find carpets not so good when my mother in law lived with us, she was in a w/c as she had ms. Did find if things where dropped on the carpets took longer to clear up, so glad for the modern alternatives now.
Cate